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The violin goes back about 400 years. The Post-Baroque or Modern violin is about 250 years old. Many (actually most) Baroque Violins, such as those made by the well-known masters (Stradivari, Gaurneri, Amati…) were converted to Modern Violins, with their longer, angled-back necks, bridges more like the kind we use today and a post-Baroque tail piece. Most of the older Baroque violins have had their bass bars replaced with all manner of new bass bar designs (bass bar innovations continue to this day).
We can set up any high-quality modern violin or fiddle in good condition to authentically replicate any period as far back to the mid-18th Century, which is about the time that the transition from the Baroque Violin to the Modern Violin (the type we use today) was complete. While the violin has not changed in 250 or so years, how it is set up and played has evolved constantly and radically.
Why?
If you need to ask “why?”, you do not need this. This is only for people who are serious about playing a genre of music from a bygone era on a fiddle accurately set up in the manner of the period. This for serious re-enactors as well as enthusiasts looking to experiment with older musical forms. Bottom Line: If you want to play music any older than the 1930s the way it was really played, accurate period setup is part of the deal.
In all cases, an appropriately setup pre-1930s modern fiddle...
- Will have gut strings, the g-strung being wound or plain gut
- No chin rest
- No shoulder rest
- No fine tuners on the tail peice (exception: a steel e-string is acceptable for and early 20th Century setup)
- A higher bridge (gut string vibrate more than modern strings)
Further, if you want to do it right You have to learn to play using the correct "hold" for the period you are re-enacting and the correct bowing technique. See our photo album on Facebook, Violin and Fiddle Holds Over the Past 250 Years
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